By Eloise Shuttleworth, Senior Director of Customer Success at Iterable

Picture this: you’re scrolling through a dating app, swiping and chatting your way through a 10 to 15 km radius of (theoretically) eligible partners, and you stumble upon someone you actually like. Someone you connect with over chat; they’re funny, humble, responsive, and approachable. You like them, so you give them your number. You thought it may be fun to continue the conversation over to a different and, slightly more intimate, channel.

But, over text, your discussion takes a turn for the worse. They forget a few contextual details, and are far more pedantic and dry — not at all the person you bonded with on the app. In-person, the conversation feels even more disconnected, making the coffee date awkward and unsavoury. You’ve come to believe that someone’s personality should carry through all levels of connection and moments of engagement. Any inconsistency or disconnection is a red flag; it’s a sign that the person doesn’t care, wasn’t paying attention, or was lying. Likely, you’ll make the decision to never see that person again.

If people expect to have consistent experiences in their personal lives, why would their expectations of brands and businesses be any different? Cohesion in the world of cross-channel marketing is key. It doesn’t matter if you’re engaging with a person or a brand, consistency builds trust — the foundation of any strong relationship.  And because 83% of consumers want to shop with brands they have an emotional connection with, relationship building is not just a nice to have; it’s a business need.

Relationship Building Through Omnichannel

As a brand, you can have amazing mobile marketing, engaging social campaigns, and a well-designed website. But if they don’t work together, they don’t create a positive experience for consumers. The future belongs to enterprises that can deliver an intelligent, contextual, frictionless, and real-time data-driven human experience.

We call this omnichannel marketing. To the naked eye, omnichannel marketing seems like a simple enough concept. Consumers like to shop online, offline, and across different channels, so businesses need to meet them wherever they are. But, if we remember the lesson I shared above, “being there” is only a small part of a much more complex equation. The rest of the work lies in operationalising and optimising the use of each channel, ensuring that all channels are deployed in synergy. 

Take Starbucks for instance; the coffee chain allows its members to reload their cards through multiple channels such as apps, in-store, or websites. The change is automatically updated across all the channels. Or take John Lewis, whose omnichannel strategy was ahead of its time when it anticipated the rise of eCommerce, even before the COVID-19 era. The pandemic only expedited the online experience and those few who saw it coming benefited significantly; so far 20% of Waitrose and 60% of John Lewis purchases are made through digital means. Or take Ola’s example. You don’t have to worry if you forget to carry cash. You can quickly fill your ola e-wallet with money whilst you’re in the cab and the driver will automatically receive their payment after the ride is complete.

Omnichannel experience is not just a buzzword. It’s a way to strengthen your relationship with the customers by offering them frictionless service across various platforms and devices. And it’s critical to a brands’ success.

Data, first

In a customer-focused world, data always comes first. The vast majority of consumers (83%) are willing to share their data for a better experience. Businesses and marketers need to focus on collecting the right data — transparently. This is where first and zero-party (which created a buzz this year as tech giants put an end to the use of third-party cookies) come into play; since zero- and first-party data are collected directly from the consumer with consent, they can help marketers create higher quality experiences.

Going forward, we can expect to see additions in the regulatory arena, and, as a result, increased care by consumers with regards to their personal data. Marketers would do well to embrace, rather than avoid, the uptick in protections. Tighter privacy regulations give consumers a rare and valuable sense of autonomy; for the first time, they have control over their personal data — from birthdays, to emails, purchase history, and preferences. Consumer independence unlocks a myriad of opportunities for brands to build stronger relationships built on trust and transparency.

As enterprises seek out the infrastructure to collect snippets of customer insights, the next rational step is looking at how to manage the entire customer profile and journey seamlessly in one system, without the need for third-party cookies. Momentum will build in technology investments that will better manage and operationalize data and make it actionable.

Technology, also first

The urgency to meet customers’ experience demands has resulted in the growth of the tools, technologies, and platforms that enhance customer engagement. But before jumping into the technology, it’s important to align. Enterprises that aim to achieve omnichannel engagement must operationalise the customer lifecycle by aligning their journeys to employee processes. To do so, they’ll want to consider customers’ requirements for additional channels, figure out how to implement digital and self-service expansions, and how to set up employee collaboration processes. This often entails an internal journey-mapping exercise and initial discovery workshops.

Once aligned, business leaders can explore other investments, like AI (a topic of considerable interest and excitement) that can bring about better and faster decision-making by rapidly connecting the dots that humans can’t see, in a way that scales and excels performance and outcomes. AI also has the potential to fundamentally change the face of customer experiences by removing friction with more efficacy as time goes on.

Fully embracing omnichannel

Overwhelmed by omnichannel? You’re not alone. A recent report by Storyblok reveals enterprises are still scared of operationalising omnichannel content experience. When asked which platforms and channels they serve with their CMS, 7.2% said voice-activated speakers, 6.6% said AR/VR, and only 3.7% said smartwatches. Enterprise adoption of newer content platforms has a long way to go, but we’re still in the early days of digital transformation projects. It’s incumbent on business leaders to set a strong foundation for omnichannel now that scales in tandem with consumer preferences and expectations going forward.